Officer who traded places with hostage, dies moments after marrying

French policeman remembered for heroic sacrifice in terror attack2:22

A French police officer who switched places with a hostage and helped bring an end to a deadly standoff is being remembered as a hero following his death.
Colonel Arnaud Beltrame was shot during the IS-inspired attack which saw three other innocent people also killed.
France's Interior Minister Gérard Collomb has taken to social media, saying the officer's bravery and sacrifice will not be forgotten.

March 24th 2018

a year ago

/display/newscorpaustralia.com/Web/NewsNetwork/Network News/World/

Colonel Arnaud Beltrame was shot after swapping himself with a hostage on Friday. He married his partner Marielle in a moving bedside ceremony. He died on March 24 of his wounds, becoming the gunman's fourth victim. / AFP PHOTO / LA GAZETTE DE LA MANCHE / —Source:AFP

COLONEL Arnaud Beltrame, 44, gave himself up to the gun-wielding extremist when the shop was stormed by in Trebes, near Toulouse.

The brave officer secretly left his phone on so officers outside could hear what was happening inside — meaning they knew to storm the supermarket straight away when they heard gunshots.

It has now emerged he wed partner Marielle while on his death bed in a hugely moving ceremony performed in a hospital in Carcassonne, in the south west of the country.

His bride was left in floods of tears as they said their prayers in the Catholic ceremony before the hero succumbed to his four bullet wounds.

Colonel Arnaud Beltrame was shot after swapping himself with a hostage on Friday. He married his partner Marielle in a moving bedside ceremony. He died on March 24 of his wounds, becoming the gunman's fourth victim. / AFP PHOTO / LA GAZETTE DE LA MANCHE / —Source:AFP

The couple had already been planning a church wedding in June after meeting during a tour of an abbey in France in 2016.

A priest identified only as Father Jean-Baptiste on Saturday described how the couple had “spent some 30 hours preparing for their marriage ceremony”.

He added: “I gave him the sacrament of marriage, and the sacrament of the sick”, explaining the soldier was an “extremely intelligent and courageous man”.

Surgeons had worked through the night to save him but Interior Minister Gérard Collomb confirmed he lost his battle this morning, writing on Twitter: “He died for his country. France will never forget his heroism, his bravery, his sacrifice.”

Paying tribute, President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday: “Lieutenant-colonel Arnaud Beltrame died serving the country to which he had already given so much. In giving his life to bring to an end the murderous actions of a jihadist terrorist, he has fallen a hero.”

Colonel Beltrame was one of 16 people injured in the atrocity after the attacker, Moroccan Redouane Lakdim, 25, went on a deadly four-hour rampage.

His brother Cedric told a French radio station today that Arnaud “didn’t have a chance.”

He said: “He gave his life for strangers. He must have known that he didn’t really have a chance.

“If that doesn’t make him a hero, I don’t know what would.”

Paris counter-terrorism investigators took over the probe into the attack in Trebes and nearby Carcassonne.

Many have laid flowers outside the local police station in memory of the lives lost on Friday in Trebes. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)Source:AP

With the police under fire over missed opportunities to prevent the attack, cops arrested a 17-year-old in connection with the atrocity.

The unidentified young man was arrested overnight over an alleged link with Lakdim, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins confirmed.

Molins also said an unnamed woman who “shared his [Lakdim’s] life” was taken into custody on the same grounds.